KT&G's heat-not-burn cigar overcomes downsides of competitors

KT&G’s lil heat-not-burn electronic stick and two types of cigarettes / Courtesy of KT&G

By Lee Min-hyung

The arrival of Phillip Morris’ iQOS heat-not-burn (HNB) e-cigarette this June disrupted the decades-old tobacco industry, with a growing numbers of smokers - mostly in their 20s and 30s - jumping onto the less smelly option.

On the outstanding success of iQOS, BAT Korea followed the footsteps of Philip Morris in August by launching its similar device, Glo. But the latter was less than sensational than the first-mover, de facto failing to overtake iQOS at least in the Korean market.

With the two overseas tobacco giants intensifying their e-cigarette market share here, KT&G, the nation’s leading tobacco player, last month released its own HNB device, lil, which stands for “a little is a lot.” The phrase means the device emits little smoke and smell, but still has a rich flavor.

On first glance, the device features an oval-shaped stick design which is comfortable to hold in one hand. In the middle of the stick is a light-emitting diode (LED) equipped power button which displays one of three colors, depending on the charging status.

When the LED display flickers deep blue, it means the device has reached 60 to 100 percent charge. A light blue color indicates the device is left with 30 to 60 percent battery charge. Yellow shows low battery status of less than 30 percent charge. It took between 90 minutes to two hours to fully charge the device’s 2,900 mAh battery.

The battery performance showed no clear differences from its competitors, with the device operating one day when assuming a user smokes no more than a pack of 20 cigarettes.

Lil comes with a price tag of 95,000 won ($87.16) here, but the device is the de facto cheapest HNB option on the Korean market. This is because any users can download an online coupon for the device, which lowers its price to 68,000 won. The second-cheapest option is Glo’s discounted 70,000 won here. The iQOS is priced at 97,000 won.

Users can also smoke one cigarette after another continuously time with the KT&G-manufactured device. This is in contrast to iQOS which prevents users from chain-smoking by designing the device not to operate after one smoke. For many cigarette fans in Korea, this has been one of the biggest downsides of iQOS.

Last not but least, flavors of lil-powered Fiit cigarettes are rich and diverse enough to beat its rivals, at least for this reporter who has used the iQOS for three months. Fiit comes in two types - change and change up - with the latter offering deeper and stronger flavor - with the Korean tobacco manufacturer planning to launch more in the months to come.

By successfully overcoming the downsides of the HNB first-mover and offering a reasonable price, lil has so far been selling rapidly since its mid-November release, with demand outpacing supply here.